


Building In The Workshop

by SpellCasterLight



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Multi Sasori Month 2021, Swearing, Very Light Kiss Scene, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 04:33:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30117198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpellCasterLight/pseuds/SpellCasterLight
Summary: She was nearly there as much as he was, almost unnerving him, that someone gave as much of a damn about their craft as he did. [Sasori x Tenten] Multi Sasori Month - Day 18 Prompt: Collage AU
Relationships: Sasori/Tenten (Naruto)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: Multi-Sasori





	Building In The Workshop

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way shape or form. This story is purely for entertainment not profit.
> 
> Author's Notes: Multi Sasori Month Day 18 Prompt! Have I ever written for Sasori before? Nope. So was this a bit a challenge? Absolutely! But, always good to try a new character eh? 😊
> 
> This is one of those ships that could only possibly work in an AU 😂
> 
> Am I a little miffed I didn't get to make the pairing tag for this pairing? Only a little 😂
> 
> Pairing Warning: It also goes without saying but if [Sasori x Tenten] isn't your thing turn back now.
> 
> Warnings: Alternative Universe. Swearing. Very Light Kiss Scene.
> 
> Multi Sasori Month - Day 18 Prompt: Collage AU

The Konohagakure University of Technology and Design Workshop facilities were one of the best in all the great five nations.

Spacious open plan area, large solid tables to give you enough room to easily manoeuvre any and all materials needed, gigantic windows to let in sunlight during the day, modern, regularly checked machines that help gave the students stunning results in their work; and the thing Sasori appreciated the most? Most of the time, especially now, first thing in the mornings, early in the semester he was the only one dedicated enough to their work to be ther-

There was someone else in the workshop. Sasori was _always_ the first one in the workshop. She had even taken his favourite table, it was his favourite because it had the largest window beside it and it was the one closest to the wood band saw machine which was his most used non hand held tool.

The female brunette was younger than him by a few years, most likely a first year, with her dark brown hair in two ridiculous buns on either side of her head that made her look like a mouse, what grown ass woman wore their hair like that? Not only that but she seemed to be using them as storage to hold pens and pencils in them from the way they stuck out of them.

The dark blue jeans she wore combined with the dark pink t-shirt she wore on already seemed to be covered in pencil sharpenings.

When the red head got closer he saw the bun haired woman hunched over an A2 page, drawing and Sasori felt his teeth clench.

Just great another bullshit pretend artist trying to catch a glimpse of the infamous drawing pretty boy Itachi Uchiha. Maybe if he told her that she'd pick up her shit and leave.

"Itachi doesn't come here on Tuesdays."

She looked up then, blinking big chocolate eyes, looking thoroughly confused at someone else being in the room never mind talking to her.

"What?"

He repeated himself; he did not like repeating himself. She only looked more baffled.

"Why would I care if Sasuke's brother isn't going to be here?"

Sasori narrowed his eyes at that, at the fact she wasn't there for the Uchiha and the fact that she had referred to him as 'Sasuke's brother', it was _always_ the other way around, and Sasuke was nothing but a whiny little prick.

The red head was about to tell her he didn't actually care why she was there at all, he only wanted her to move, when she pulled a strained smile.

"No offence but can I be left alone? I'm in the middle of a brain wave."

At that dismissal she simply turned back in her seat, put her head down and started measuring a line with a ruler before marking it lightly in pencil, picking off from where she was interrupted.

Already behind in his mental schedule for the day Sasori moved to setup at his second favourite table.

* * *

She was nearly there as much as he was, almost unnerving him, that someone gave as much of a damn about their craft as he did.

Sasori hated that his vision flicked up sometimes to see if she was still in the room.

The bun haired woman, he still couldn't get over that, hair buns, what age _was_ she? Was wearing a grass green tank top this time with her jeans. At least she was dressed for work, to put effort in, she wasn't dressed like some of the girlie air headed idiots that proclaimed to be artists that waited around just to get a glimpse to his painter friend Itachi when he took advantage of the large worktops for his pastels and paints.

"Is that all you came to make?"

He all but barked at her when she started walking past his table, when she came away from hogging the whetstone machine for too long a time with nothing but a tiny piece of metal to show for it.

"What this?" The brunette held up the small throwing star she had created in between her forefinger and middle finger. "No of course not," she started twirling the metal weapon between her fingers like other people would play with a pen.

"I had read online the Clark whetstone machines could be a little temperamental, especially the CBG8W range like the University has so I wanted to try it out first on something small to get the hang of it," the bun haired woman shrugged easily. "Don't know what anyone online was talking about, handled perfect for me."

"Maybe they were just idiots."

She confused the hell out of him by laughing at that, like he had just told a joke, he wasn't kidding, most people were morons.

"I'm Tenten by the way," she added as an afterthought.

He leant heavier on the desk then, gouge chisel still in his fist. "What?"

"Well, I mean, we've been in the same room everyday for weeks now, desk neighbours," she grinned at her own joke, flicking her arm out lazily to the table currently holding her designs and tools. "Getting to be on at least decent terms with each other wouldn't hurt right?"

What did he care about being on good terms with someone like her? Someone who stole his favourite table and left pencils sharpenings everywhere and took up all the time at the machines.

"Sasori."

The brunette smiled, before heading over to her table, leaving him in peace.

He bent his head again, placing his chisel back on the piece of wood for the body of his project when that same throwing star was set beside his work area.

When the red head looked up she had her coat and backpack on, clearly leaving for the day. It was only just after eight at night, what a slacker.

"A present," Tenten stood tall with another smile. "From one desk neighbour to another."

When she was gone he set aside the plank of mahogany wood to inspect the edges of the throwing star. He hated to admit it but she did good work, the edges were clean cut, no dents and sharp.

Not as good as what he would have achieved of course but she had more skill than the rest of the idiots he usually saw.

* * *

"What are you making?"

She didn't look up, Tenten continued to focus on what she was doing, using the CNC machine to cut through a thick sheet of Damascus metal, a true artist paid attention even with distractions about.

"Sword," the bun haired woman replied easily, tongue caught in her teeth in concentration.

Sasori frowned at that, wondering why he had bothered walking over and talking to her at all.

"Is that it? Sword."

He heard her laugh sigh. "A single edged, straight blade, fourteenth century tanto katana," she looked up at him then with a teasing smile but only for a second her focused eyes going back to the plasma blade cutting the metal. "That better?"

"Yes," Sasori stated easily. "An artist should be precise."

"Artist?" Tenten questioned back almost laughing.

"You don't consider yourself an artist?"

"I don't know," Tenten pressed the button to stop the plasma saw, before sitting back with a thoughtful expression, finally shrugging in a carefree way. "I never really thought about it."

She lifted her cut piece of metal off the cutting tray still wearing the protective gloves. "I just like making metal things that stab people."

Metal cut, machine safely off, she brought her prize back to her table.

"I'm going to sharpen the edges by hand once then use the whetstone machine," Tenten spoke aloud so it must have been at him, tossing the protective gloves onto the workbench.

If she had taken it directly to the machine to sharpen he would have considered her a fool.

His questions answered he headed back over to his own workspace, only mildly annoyed when she followed.

"What are you making?"

"Puppet," he said attempting to mimic her unhelp basic answer from earlier, at her grin he frowned. "What?"

"Nothing! I just," Tenten's lip caught in her teeth again but this time in mirth rather than concentration. "I didn't expect you to make something for children is all."

"My puppets are not for _children,"_ Sasori sneered at the mere idea of a child playing with and breaking his creation. "Children ruin things."

"Then why make them?"

"My grandmother taught me," the red head explained not really thinking anything of it. "It's a family heritage."

Tenten's eyes lit up at that, which was stupid, it really wasn't that big of a deal.

"Really? How cool!" The sword maker beamed. "She sounds like a kick ass lady."

"She's," he searched for a word. "Fine."

She came to stand behind him asking about the inner workings of his final year project creation, it was actually sort of pleasant to have a conversation about this sort of thing with someone who had some sort of idea of what they were talking about, how any of Sasori's previous student advisors or lecturer's got as far as they did he would never know.

When he explained about his own personal designs for the improved hip joints she clicked her teeth before grinning.

"So cool."

"No one has ever really considered puppetry to be cool before."

Tenten easily shrugged running a delicate finger over one of the puppets own fingers, Sasori pulled the string to make the wooden figure point the finger she was inspecting making her grin.

"Cool is different to different people."

His greyish brown eyes flicked over her shoulder to the sword she was half finished making before moving back to her face.

Yes, he could agree to that.

* * *

"Are you going to be spending your Friday night in the workshop again hn?"

Sasori lifted his gaze from his phone to look directly at his smirking friend.

"What of it?"

At his bark of a question Deidara's smirk only widened.

"It's that girl isn't it? The one with the weird hair hn?"

"No it isn't," Sasori flat out told him glaring slightly with narrowed eyes. "Some of us just want to get a good final grade."

"Hey! You haven't even seen what I've been working on!" The blonde argued back. "It's going to cause quite a _bang_ at the final presentation."

Sasori heavily doubted that, how Deidara thought that clay garbage he did constituted as art was beyond him, didn't they teach that in crèches to four year olds?

"Well speak of the devil and she will appear."

Sasori turned his head around to look directly behind him in the direction his blonde friend was smirking in.

"Tenten."

She must have sensed someone watching her because her head lifted and looked straight in their direction, the bun haired woman donned a small smile and headed over to them.

"Sasori hi!" The red head merely nodded at her when she was right beside their table. "And who's this?"

"I'm Deidara hn," his blonde haired friend took her hand then giving her an almost leering smile making Sasori silently roll his eyes.

"And who might you be?"

"I'm Tenten!"

Sasori narrowed his eyes Deidara knew her name even made the indirect comment about it being her when he saw her just now across the courtyard what was his angle?

"So nice to meet another friend of Sasori's after all this time!"

"What's with the hair hn?" Deidara suddenly asked and the puppet maker felt a spike of rage, his friend was _dead_ when they were next alone, absolutely _dead_.

"Oh you mean my hair buns?" Tenten clarified her right hand running over the right one, the bun almost taking up her entire palm. "Well I used to have my hair in a ponytail right? But it still got in the way when I was bending over to draw and I tried a bun at the back of my head but there were always these silly wispy bits that got in my way."

At Deidara's confused stare she grinned rolled her eyes and undid that same bun.

Her unconfined chocolate locks actually fell down to her waist then and his blonde friend gave low whistle in appreciation.

"Yes so you can see why it would get in the way."

Sasori wasn't mesmerised like his friend was, hair was hair after all, but he was partially interested in the sheer difference it gave her overall appearance, not enough to think about in any real detail but enough to ponder the fact at that one moment.

Tenten, with practiced ease, redid her hair bun quickly.

"You know," Deidara did that grin when was about to say stupid shit. "Sasori likes girls with long hair hn."

Sasori nearly scoffed out loud where did the clay moulder pull that fact from? He had never said anything of the sort and if he did the last person he would tell would be Deidara the man could keep a secret as well as a sieve could hold water.

"Really?" The brunette smirked herself as if knowing his friend was making stuff up. "Good to know," her whole body turned to him then. "Are you going to the workshop Sasori?"

He nodded. "I am."

"Well hurry up then or I'm stealing the best table again."

Ignoring the clay user's heavy handed look Sasori packed up his things and silently fell into step with the brunette.

* * *

A few weeks later Sasori saw her doing something disgusting and vastly unneeded.

"Ribbon?"

"For the sword handle," she explained laying the blood red ribbon out flat to take measurements. "A bit of flare you know?"

Sasori couldn't stop his lip from curling in disgust. Art didn't need silly unneeded flare, it needed to be sturdy, it needed to be everlasting, it needed to be eternal. Ribbon wasn't _eternal_. It would get damaged easily and destroyed. It was a shame, after all this time he was beginning to think Tenten understoo-

The bun haired woman laughed lightly with her own unamused look.

"I don't think it needs added but my personal instructor thinks my project needs it," an angry huff escaped her. "A little _boring_ looking he said."

Balance restored Sasori quickly asked. "Who is your student advisor?"

The brunette gave a strained smile. "Kankuro no Sabaku."

Sasori scoffed openly in distain. "That idiot?" He knew of Kankuro alright, he was in the year below him and seemed to want to simply copy everything he did but worse, Sasori wondered if he'd take his grave as quickly as he did his ideas. "What the hell does he know?"

It was the only time the puppet maker wished he had volunteered to be an advisor. He wouldn't have told her to outright ruin her art like that, by putting some god awful ribbon on it like it was a stupid parade float. But then knowing his luck he would have ended up with some other idiot that wanted to make jewellery or something else so very temporary and brain numbingly uninteresting.

"Don't listen to him, the man is a fool."

"His evaluation is _thirty percent_ of my overall grade Sasori."

"You only need forty percent to pass."

She looked at him then and even he knew not to take what he just said too seriously, she was like him, a bare pass would somehow be worse than failure.

"How's your marionette coming along?" She asked measuring her ribbon for a second time before cutting once. "Did you get the metal rod pieces you ne-?"

A loud deliberate banging on glass to his left caused Tenten to turn around and grin lightly.

The blonde ponytailed woman he had seen her hanging out with was waving enthusiastically now that she had Tenten's attention through the window, she held up what looked like four white cards, pointing to them energetically as she jumped up and down.

Tenten gave her a laugh and a thumbs up and the blonde was off like a shot.

"She got our tickets to the formal," Tenten explained to the perplexed puppet maker.

"You're going to that stupid thing?"

He didn't expect that from her. The sword maker laughed only confusing him more; she cut the ribbon, turned the sword handle towards her and started wrapping the handle from the bottom upwards before continuing.

"I lost a bet."

"A bet?"

"The bet of 'can Tenten come up with a valid excuse to not go before her friends tell her they're buying her ticket for her'," she smiled up at him then. "I lost. I'm sure I could get another ticket, wanna come?"

The thought of spending an evening surrounded by swaggering drunk morons made him want to stick pins in his eyes.

"No."

She only chuckled. "I didn't think so."

The red material wrapped firmly and securely in place around the sword handle, she picked up the sword in its sheath and turned it this way and that, checking her handiwork at different angles in the light before lowering the weapon and sighing.

"It's perfect; but still so _unneeded_."

The urge to go and beat some sense into Kankuro for her was nearly overwhelming; Sasori had never felt like that before.

* * *

A Friday night, the perfect time to be in the workshop, he had the whole place to himsel-

The door opened with an angry groan because of the heavy weight of the wood. Sasori turned with the full intention of giving whoever it was a glare but found himself lifting his head instead.

"Tenten."

It was her but; _not_. She wore a floor length evening gown of deep navy, decorated with silver jewels, her hair down, fuller, wavier, and also laced with shiny stones, silver heels and many thin silver bracelets on her wrists, her eyes wider looking because of mascara, her lips painted a darker pinker.

"I thought you might be here," Tenten confessed walking more into the room instead of just lingering at the door, almost like she was posing, it was so abnormal it made his fingers twitch. "Kind of hoped you would be."

"Why are you here?" Sasori asked with a disbelieving tint to his voice. "Shouldn't you be at your formal?"

"Needed to get away for a bit, it's just not really my scene you know? I much prefer-" the sword maker rubbed her arm with her open palm like she was cold, not surprising, wearing something so frivolous. Tenten gestured around the room, to the worktops, to the crafting machines, to the metal heaters for bending metals of all kinds. "-being here."

She came to lean against her table, when he had willingly given her his favourite table he didn't really know but it was hers now.

"You're staring."

"You look different."

"Yea, I got attacked with makeup and hair curlers," she joked. "I can't do this girlie stuff myself so Ino and Sakura took it on as a mission for the evening."

Tenten looked traditionally beautiful, like a model out of a magazine, a fleeting, made up, unrealistic, beautiful. Kami he hated it.

The puppet maker wanted her covered in oil and pencil sharpenings, wanted her hair in those dumb buns she liked with pens sticking out of them, wanted her hands rough and raw from hard work and dedication to her craft, not covered in useless nail polish and donning girlie bracelets.

Sasori stood himself and leaned against his table, to be opposite her, the one right beside the one he had willingly, at some point, given her to work on.

"I prefer you the way you normally are."

When the brunette was filled with substance, when she was unyielding and sure of herself.

"What?" Tenten chuckled lightly, sceptical. "You're the first person to ever say that I can tell you."

"People are idiots," Sasori spat back. "You are eternal," he felt the need to quickly add, at her stunned expression. "But not when you look like this, you just look stupid."

The whole hearted laugh she gave then confused but strangely relieved him.

Her laugh quickly turned into a gasp when Sasori found his fingers threaded in her hair and his lips pressed firmly over hers.

She tasted like...well he didn't really know, but it wasn't what he expected, what he _wanted_ , what he _imagined_ her tasting like. As quickly as he pulled her too him he pushed her away, Tenten having to catch herself with a hand on the table behind her.

"Wha-Sasori I-?"

He needed to tell her, tell her he wanted the _real_ her, not his fleeting, temporary _fake_ but he just couldn't seem to find the words.

"Leave," was all that came out of his mouth instead, in forceful, distressed, nearly angry tone.

Tenten didn't even argue, the real Tenten would have said something back. The sound of her high heels clicking quickly against the tiled floor echoing in his very skull.

When he was alone, back in the creeping silence given off by the cold machines, Sasori sat robotically in the stool beside his work table, and after a second, in a flash of embitterment swept everything off the countertop with one sweeping push, wood, metal, pencils, his half finished puppet he had been working months on, dropping to the floor with small dull thuds.

The puppet maker rested his elbows on the table, mind frighteningly empty, and stared into space.

This was all Deidara's fault somehow, he was sure of it.


End file.
